PURPOSE: To help listeners understand that the use of God’s gifts is not an option but an obligation.

We may read about a lonely recluse who died and his body was found in a shack filled with garbage and clutter. Used paper pizza trays are stacked in the kitchen and newspapers are stacked in the living room. Only some old cats kept him company. Then, after his death, the police find a very large sum of money stashed in the closet or buried under the floor boards of the house or stuffed in a mattress.